Phyl’s Ice Cream Week: Blueberry Swirl Cheesecake Crumble Ice Cream

Back in June Phyl sent out a notice that he was doing an Ice Cream Week “right smack in the Dog Days of Summer“. Lots of us said we would join in and then promptly several of us forgot. Well, I did, anyway!! Thankfully I was reminded on Twitter that the Ice Cream Week was fast approaching so Into the kitchen I went. I wanted to make some different ice creams than I had before so after some lengthy research I came up with some new recipes. Some of them are mine, some adapted, some straight from other bloggers.

The first Ice Cream up was labeled as Summer Fruit. Many fruits came to mind but I decided on Blueberries. I didn’t want a blueberry ice cream but rather an ice cream with a Blueberry Swirl. I found lots of recipes but decided to simply use some ideas I had already had while baking some cakes, crumbles, and pies.

In a small saucepan, crush the blueberries with a potato masher. Stir in the sugar. Set over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. While the blueberries are heating up, form a slurry by stirring together the cornstarch and water in a small bowl. Add the slurry to the blueberries, stirring constantly. Continue stirring for one minute as the mixture thickens up. Remove from heat and stir in the lemon juice. Pour blueberry mixture into a heatproof bowl, cover, and chill until cooled. Keep in refrigerator until ready to add to the ice cream.

Mix the flour, baking powder, sugars, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl. Melt the butter and stir it in evenly. Rub the mixture to coarse crumbs by hand. Spread mixture on buttered foil and bake for about 8 minutes at 350 degrees until browned and crunchy.

When ready to churn, remove mixture from refrigerator. Whisk a little to make sure the mixture has no lumps. Churn in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. When Ice Cream is almost finished churning pour in the crumb topping and a few fresh blueberries. When the ice cream has finished churning spoon into a container. Spoon the blueberry mixture into the bowl and mix just enough to swirl through the ice cream. Freeze until hardened.

I had made Cheesecake Ice Cream before but with Strawberries. Blueberries sounded like a good mix. And earlier this summer I had made Malgieri’s Blueberry Crumb Cake {post to come}. I wrote on the page that the topping would make a good ice cream topping. So why not put it IN the ice cream instead. And so we have this lovely, fruity, crunchy ice cream.

I did have one problem with the ice cream. It never did soften enough to scoop. It seems to be more of a slice-and-eat ice cream. So, sorry, no pics of a pretty scoop of ice cream it a cute little bowl. Was good though.

All of this looks just beautiful! I love all the components and I think the guys would go for this…marking it for trying soon. Nice job. I should have made ice cream back in June and been ready but I didn’t. I couldn’t get any takers here and I certainly didn’t need to be eating it all myself.